“Age makes you notice certain things. For example, I now know that a man’s life is broadly divided into three periods. During the first, it doesn’t even occur to us that one day we will grow old, we don’t think that time passes or that from the day we are born we’re all walking toward a common end. After the first years of youth comes the second period, in which a person becomes aware of the fragility of life and what begins like a simple niggling doubt rises inside you like a flood of uncertainties that will stay with you for the rest of your days. Finally, toward the end of life, the period of acceptance begins, and, consequently, of resignation, a time of waiting.”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, quote from The Prince of Mist
“Whenever it poured like this, Max felt as if time was pausing. It was like a cease-fire during which you could stop whatever you were doing and just stand by a window for hours, watching the performance, an endless curtain of tears falling from heaven.”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, quote from The Prince of Mist
“[H]e lay awake, dreading the dawn when he would have to say good-bye to the small universe he had built for himself over the years.”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, quote from The Prince of Mist
“Max had once read in one of his father's books that some childhood images become engraved in the mind like photographs, like scenes you can return to again and again and will always remember, no matter how much time goes by.”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, quote from The Prince of Mist
“He lost himself in the words and images conjured in his mind and for a while forgot ... He found himself flying among stars and planets ...”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, quote from The Prince of Mist
“Now he knew that any memories he might cherish during the last years of his life would be only fictions from a biography he'd never lived.”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, quote from The Prince of Mist
“1My father says a hunch is your brain’s way of taking a short cut to the truth,’ replied Max.
‘He’s a wise man, your father. What else does he say?’
‘That the more you try to hide from the truth, the quicker it finds you.”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, quote from The Prince of Mist
“Aquel día, sin saberlo, mientras contemplaba a su familia deambular arriba y abajo con las maletas y sostenía el reloj que le había regalado su padre, Max dejó para siempre de ser un niño.”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, quote from The Prince of Mist
“La vida de un hombre se divide básicamente en tres períodos. En el primero, uno ni siguiera piensa que envejecerá, ni que el tiempo pasa ni que, desde el primer día, cuando nacemos, caminamos hacia un único fin. Pasada la primera juventud, empieza el segundo período, en el que uno se da cuenta de la fragilidad de la propia vida y lo que en un principio es una simple inquietud va creciendo en el interior como un mar de dudas e incertidumbres que te acompañan durante el resto de tus días. Por último, al final de la vida se abre el tercer período, el de la aceptación de la realidad y, consecuentemente, la resignación y la espera. A lo largo de mi existencia he conocido a muchas personas que se quedaron ancladas en alguno de esos estadios y nunca lograron superarlos. Es algo terrible.”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, quote from The Prince of Mist
“Sentía que por primera vez en su vida, el tiempo transcurría más rápido de lo que deseaba y que ya no podía refugiarse en el sueño de años pasados. La rueda de la fortuna había empezado a girar y, esta vez, él no había tirado los dados”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, quote from The Prince of Mist
“Vrijeme ne postoji, zato ga ne možemo gubiti.”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, quote from The Prince of Mist
“Cuando llovía con fuerza, Max sentía que el tiempo se detenía. Era como una tregua en la cual uno podía dejar de hacer cualquier cosa que le ocupase en aquel momento y sencillamente acercarse a contemplar el espectáculo de aquella infinita cortina de lágrimas del cielo desde una ventana, durante horas. Dejó de nuevo el libro sobre la mesita y apagó la luz. Lentamente, envuelto en el sonido hipnótico de la lluvia, se rindió al sueño.”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, quote from The Prince of Mist
“Había permanecido en la sombra, esperando, sin prisa, a que alguna fuerza lo trajese de nuevo al mundo de los vivos. Y nada tiene tanta fuerza como una promesa...”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, quote from The Prince of Mist
“Fu allora che si accorse di non essere solo all'interno del mausoleo, e che un profilo scuro si muoveva sul soffitto, avanzando silenziosamente come un insetto. Max sentì l'orologio scivolare dalle mani fredde di sudore e alzo lo sguardo. Uno degli angeli di pietra che aveva visto all'entrata camminava capovolto sul soffitto. La figura si fermò e, guardando Max, mostrò un sorriso crudele e allungò un dito accusatore contro di lui.”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, quote from The Prince of Mist
“Los malos recuerdos te persiguen sin necesidad de llevarlos contigo”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, quote from The Prince of Mist
“U beskrajnom univerzumu bilo je previše stvari koje su izmicale ljudskom razumijevanju.”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, quote from The Prince of Mist
“Pogrešno je misliti da se snovi ostvaruju, a da mi ne ponudimo ništa zauzvrat.”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, quote from The Prince of Mist
“Kolo sreće počelo se okretati, ali ovaj put on nije bacio kockice.”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, quote from The Prince of Mist
“Morat će proći još mnogo godina prije nego što Max zaboravi ljeto kad je otkrio, gotovo sasma slučajno, magiju.”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, quote from The Prince of Mist
Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Born place: in Barcelona, Spain
Born date September 25, 1964
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“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
― quote from While the World Watched: A Birmingham Bombing Survivor Comes of Age During the Civil Rights Movement
“In America, conservative historian Francis Fukuyama wrote that the collapse of the Soviet Union marked not just the end of the Cold War, but the end of history: liberal capitalist democracy had won, no ideology could challenge it anymore, and nothing remained but a little cleanup work around the edges while all the world got on board the train headed for the only truth. …
On the other side of the planet, however, jihadists and Wahhabis were drawing very different conclusions from all these thunderous events [Iran's 1979 revolution and ouster of US presence and the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan]. In Iran, it seemed to them, Islam had brought down the Shah and driven out America. In Afghanistan, Muslims had not just beaten the Red Army but toppled the Soviet Union itself. Looking at all this, Jihadists saw a pattern they thought they recognized. The First Community had defeated the two superpowers of its day, the Byzantine and Sassanid Empires, simply by having God on its side. Modern Muslims also confronted two superpowers, and they had now brought one of them down entirely. On down, one to go was how it looked to the jihadists and the Wahabbis. History coming to an end? Hardly. As these radicals saw it, history was just getting interesting.”
― Tamim Ansary, quote from Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes
“He did what good lawyers always do. He shifted his argument in the direction his audience was already going.”
― Jeffrey Toobin, quote from The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court
“I was too stubborn to really take on what she was saying. But we're all guilty sometimes of only listening to what we want to hear.”
― Lesley Pearse, quote from Trust Me
“You see, Ross, in every right marriage, in every good marriage a woman has to be three things, don't she? She's got to be a wife and look after a man's comforts in the way a man should be looked after. Then she's got to bear his children and get all swelled up like a summer pumpkin and then often-times feed them after and smell of babies and have them crawling all about her...But then, third, she has also to try and be his mistress at the same time; someone he is still interested in; someone he wants, not just the person who happens to be there and convenient; someone a bit mysterious...someone whose knee or -- or shoulder he wouldn't instantly recognize if he saw it beside him in bed. It's -- it's impossible.”
― Winston Graham, quote from The Black Moon
The Sugar Queen
Forest of Secrets
The Known World
The Distant Hours
The Golden Bowl
For a Few Demons Mor...BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.
Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.
